According to Variety, the Puppet Master horror franchise is being rebooted with the writing help of Bone Tomahawk director S. Craig Zahler, in a partnership between Transformers producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura Pictures and Caliber Media. A director has yet to be hired.
The original films—the 11th of which, Puppet Master: Axis Termination, is due out later this year—follow a group of puppets brought to life by an Egyptian spell that allows them to use their unique attributes to torture humans. Leech Woman, for example, regurgitates deathly leeches onto her prey, while her friend Blade cuts people to death:
This go-around, Variety reports, the films will focus on “a recently divorced young man who discovers a mint condition Blade doll in his deceased brother’s closet and plans to sell the toy at a convention in Oregon celebrating the 30th anniversary of the infamous Toulon Murders.” As expected, the entire convention becomes a playground for murderous dolls brought to life by a mystical force, and many humans die a bloody death. And with the companies planing to produce “multiple storylines within this new universe,” you can bet this will happen at least four to nine more times in the spirit of running any and all horror franchises into the ground, again.